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Brown urged: put faces of war dead on stamps

BRITAIN'S official war artist is to ask the prime minister to intervene after the Royal Mail refused to issue stamps commemorating British soldiers killed in Iraq.

Steve McQueen, a Turner prize winner, offered his portraits of more than 100 dead troops - commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to form a record of the conflict - for use on the stamps. He was backed by most of the families of the soldiers.

However, he was rebuffed for reasons that he described last night as "rubbish". The Royal Mail claimed it normally took two or three years to produce a range of stamps. But McQueen has pointed to the fact that it took only two months to produce an issue featuring Diana, Princess of Wales after her death.

This year its commemorative stamps have included a seaside donkey, Harry Potter book covers, a moon jellyfish and Beatles album covers. British Army uniforms will